I can't apologize for raising chickens to eat, because most everyone eats chicken, just ask my foxes that have dined on most of them this spring! They are the Blue Plate special, the white meat and not the other. Raised for centuries, and now perfected meat producers in a short amount of time.
It's basically how they are raised that might bother our conscience. When I lived on the Del Marva Peninsula, they had long houses set up by Purdue to raise millions of chickens. Thousands of chickens in one house, ready in 5 weeks time; little fresh air, hot weather, pumped with food, and in confined spaces small enough to turn around. After passing a farm on the bicycle in July, it is well, not appetizing.
I had a chicken tractor built with skids so that it can be moved around, and I use it mainly in the summer to raise 50 chickens; 25 at a time. That is enough chicken raised to sell to some people that like old fashion raise chicken, and the rest is put in the freezer.
They have fresh air, a lot of space, and I make sure they are in a clean environment. And when that day comes, we usually fast them off the night before, and humanely butcher them (if that isn't a contradiction) It isn't pleasant, it isn't fun, but it is something we want to do- to get it behind us. And after that day, (chuckle) we don't feel like eating chicken for a week. But when we do eat our chicken it is a feeling of self-sufficiency. Knowing how they were raised compared to industrial farming is a much better thought as well. Don't get me wrong, I have remorse, and saying grace might have originated from trying to feel better about a sacrifice to feed our bodies.
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